Casual War: NATO's Intervention in Kosovo [Abstract]

Ethics & International Affairs, Volume 14 (2000)

One of the most remarkable features of contemporary international relations
is the new prestige accorded universal standards of human rights. However,
NATO’s attempt to redeem the promise of human rights by way of military
intervention during the recent Kosovo crisis may have established a disturbing
precedent for humanitarianism. The Alliance exploited the capabilities of
precision weaponry and digital information systems to wage war with air power
alone, thus avoiding entirely the deployment of ground troops and the domestic
political exposure such a deployment inevitably involves. The best available
evidence is that this approach had little immediate effect on the atrocities
carried out by Serbian troops in Kosovo and that NATO’s overriding concern with
casualty-avoidance in war undermined both the effectiveness and the moral
legitimacy of humanitarian intervention. Even more disturbing is the question
whether NATO’s action implies that states endowed with the advanced military
assets that were brought to bear against Serbia will adopt a casual policy on
the conduct of limited war, a policy at odds with the lessons of the twentieth
century.